Viper Armor
Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death.
~ Death Is Not The Greatest Loss In Life, The Greatest Loss Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live. ~
Surrender and serve me in life, or die and slave for me in death.
There’s no reason you couldn’t run a power build out of viper’s gear with proper trinkets and ways to generate conditions without scepter. I ran one spvp season with a condition build with axe/focus and staff. This was before they changed chill to instead inflict bleed.
I miss that build
There’s no reason you couldn’t run a power build out of viper’s gear with proper trinkets and ways to generate conditions without scepter. I ran one spvp season with a condition build with axe/focus and staff. This was before they changed chill to instead inflict bleed.
I miss that build
The biggest reason why Viper’s wouldn’t be a very viable Power Build is because you lose a LOT of Ferocity in place of Condition Damage/Duration, which is the core to your power. You want to Crit and Crit HARD in a Power Build, kill or be killed in other words. Now if you were talking about a Hybrid build then absolutely I can see the viability in it (and with your weapon choices I see what you’re referring to as a Hybrid build with slightly more emphasis on the Condi side of things). I don’t remember what Chill was before it inflicted bleed, so my apologies for being a bit dense on that detail.
Back to the OP:
Personally, if I ran a Condi-build it’d be like this:
Granted I don’t play Condi (been thinking about a nice change of pace lately but not interested for now) so I don’t know how the Traits would best work out for me and how I’d play it but this would be the general idea of what I’d go for.
~ Death Is Not The Greatest Loss In Life, The Greatest Loss Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live. ~
There’s no reason you couldn’t run a power build out of viper’s gear with proper trinkets and ways to generate conditions without scepter. I ran one spvp season with a condition build with axe/focus and staff. This was before they changed chill to instead inflict bleed.
I miss that build
The biggest reason why Viper’s wouldn’t be a very viable Power Build is because you lose a LOT of Ferocity in place of Condition Damage/Duration, which is the core to your power. You want to Crit and Crit HARD in a Power Build, kill or be killed in other words. Now if you were talking about a Hybrid build then absolutely I can see the viability in it (and with your weapon choices I see what you’re referring to as a Hybrid build with slightly more emphasis on the Condi side of things). I don’t remember what Chill was before it inflicted bleed, so my apologies for being a bit dense on that detail.
Back to the OP:
Personally, if I ran a Condi-build it’d be like this:
Granted I don’t play Condi (been thinking about a nice change of pace lately but not interested for now) so I don’t know how the Traits would best work out for me and how I’d play it but this would be the general idea of what I’d go for.
You lose a lot of DPS on a condi build by not taking reaper.
Probably something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBLRtG2IDNUdjN3g3NwhjFjBLeHGEPiR/sAwBY6oFDeBA-TRiPABZq+D5Kfo8kAAwCChsfwmKhIW/g+KBr8JAEA4AY36GA2d3d3d3dLFwi6qA-e
if you want to be optimal. Its slightly higher Condi damage than what you’ve showed and you get the 100% bleed and the 150% scepter conditions. Note though, this is really more for raids or fractals. And only if you are going to be using food. If you are not adjust accordingly. The goal of any condi build should be that 100% bleed duration mark.
(edited by Lily.1935)
There’s no reason you couldn’t run a power build out of viper’s gear with proper trinkets and ways to generate conditions without scepter. I ran one spvp season with a condition build with axe/focus and staff. This was before they changed chill to instead inflict bleed.
I miss that build
The biggest reason why Viper’s wouldn’t be a very viable Power Build is because you lose a LOT of Ferocity in place of Condition Damage/Duration, which is the core to your power. You want to Crit and Crit HARD in a Power Build, kill or be killed in other words. Now if you were talking about a Hybrid build then absolutely I can see the viability in it (and with your weapon choices I see what you’re referring to as a Hybrid build with slightly more emphasis on the Condi side of things). I don’t remember what Chill was before it inflicted bleed, so my apologies for being a bit dense on that detail.
Back to the OP:
Personally, if I ran a Condi-build it’d be like this:
Granted I don’t play Condi (been thinking about a nice change of pace lately but not interested for now) so I don’t know how the Traits would best work out for me and how I’d play it but this would be the general idea of what I’d go for.
You lose a lot of DPS on a condi build by not taking reaper.
Probably something like this http://gw2skills.net/editor/?vRAQRBLRtG2IDNUdjN3g3NwhjFjBLeHGEPiR/sAwBY6oFDeBA-TRiPABZq+D5Kfo8kAAwCChsfwmKhIW/g+KBr8JAEA4AY36GA2d3d3d3dLFwi6qA-e
if you want to be optimal. Its slightly higher Condi damage than what you’ve showed and you get the 100% bleed and the 150% scepter conditions. Note though, this is really more for raids or fractals. And only if you are going to be using food. If you are not adjust accordingly. The goal of any condi build should be that 100% bleed duration mark.
What I don’t get is why Reaper would benefit you if you have no way to actually apply Chill (unless you intend to use Shroud only to apply Chill)? I mean I love Scepter/Dagger (I love Dagger off-hand in general cuz it has the best Condi removal skill) but Scepter Warhorn confuses me. You get a Daze and a melee-DoT shroud from Warhorn, I don’t see how that benefits from a ranged build? Staff would make more sense to me, considering the larger range and the fact that you can toss Reaper for Soul Reaping and make the Marks Unblockable (as well as make Fear deal damage and have a longer duration, for when you’re aggressed on). Reaper to me just seems like a Melee-oriented Trait route for those that want to go Melee (in other words, all of those Traits seem to either benefit GS or Reaper Shroud directly). Not trying to argue or pick a fight, just asking questions and thinking with you.
I don’t see why Spite wouldn’t be viable either, you gain Might Stacks which further increases Power and Condi damage (and with Strength Sigils you can easily build Might early before the Traits kick in to keep you capped). You also gain that damage bonus when they reach 50% health or less, it just seems more beneficial to me (then again I’m clearly all about Power so I probably just sound stupid and don’t know what I’m talking about). My other question: so on a Condi build it’s better to focus on maximizing Condition Damage/Duration rather than worrying about Power? I legit don’t know if Condi weapons even benefit from Power at all or if Condition Damage is best.
So having capped Condition Damage means the Conditions won’t ever wear off? If that’s the case then I’m really stupid, my apologies for the previous build. Another reason I couldn’t play this build is because I HATE the Corruption Trait-line, literally with a burning passion. I will never be able to play in a way where I harm myself just to transfer those Conditions onto an enemy, it’s just too ‘anti-productive’ to me. Again, that’s all just cuz I understand absolutely nothing about Condi Necros.
Thanks for pointing some stuff out though, seriously it’s nice to learn something new in case one day I do decide to take a break from the chaotic power-playstyle to a more relaxed ranged-playstyle.
~ Death Is Not The Greatest Loss In Life, The Greatest Loss Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live. ~
Snip
So I’m going to go head and explain it for you in a bit more detail.
I enjoy the play style personally and I think a few things aren’t explained all that well on the forums from time to time.
Q: “Why reaper?”
A: Reaper provides far more DPS than core necromancer. Thats the quickest answer but there is far more to it than that, than just DPS. This is true weather you are playing power or condi. Why this is true for condi is not just for the Chilling Death trait but also because of its Soul Spiral. Soul Spiral is a fantastic DPS boost that hits hard through both power and condi damage. 12 stacks of poison in a fairly short period of time is extremely good. You can also spiral through your own Chill field or poison field to get the chilling bolts or poison bolts. This is important to note because it increases your condi damage further. If you can’t use your poison field for whatever reason the chilling bolts will each provide a single stack of bleeding for 15 seconds. Not too shabby right? There is also Chilling Nova which will proc off a chilled foe who is critically hit. This is important to note because it’ll provide you with an additional bleed and a bit of damage on top of that. Note, that you don’t need to apply the chill yourself to get this to trigger, so if you are running with allies who also apply chill its almost like a free fire sigil when compared to power builds.
Chilling victory will provide you with extra might as well as life force which can be crucial since condi builds have a tougher time with life force than power builds. It also gives might which will aid in your personal DPS. However, Decimate defenses is a very viable option as you can push yourself to 100% crit chance with that allowing you to trigger Barbed precision more frequently if you have the correct group. Decimate defenses would be preferred in raids to chilling victory.
Aside from DPS, you’re also given far better defensive options than Core necromancer. Including a fairly reliable escape in the form of Death’s Charge. Which also works as a gap closer. You can also use it in your Ice field to gain frost aura to gain a bit of a defense boost as well as trigger more bleeds when they strike you, acting as sorta a sudo condi version of retal. Not that great, but should be mentioned, might trigger 1-3 bleeds from it. The stability will also prevent you from being controlled for quite some time as well which is a great addition to prevent yourself from being disabled. I shouldn’t have to tell you why Stab is so good, You know why.
Reaper’s Shroud goes even further than that to provide you with greater control. I mentioned before about death’s charge, but it gives you a blind. Blind is really effective at degenerating break bars, as is chill. Combine and they’ll reverse the regeneration entirely. Executioner’s Scythe doesn’t just provide a chill field but also a MASSIVE hit to the break bar of a foe as well as causing the bleeds. When it comes to break bars, Reaper is just superior in every way to Core necromancer. The bonus Chill Duration with the extra chills, the extra blind, and Two major stuns, You can’t beat Reaper in this catagory.
Q: "So having capped Condition duration means Conditions won’t ever wear off? "
A: I corrected what you said because I’m going to assume that this is what you meant. And no, conditions will still wear off. However this means that your limit for stacks is much higher than it otherwise would be. My personal cap on bleeds gets somewhere around 50. With an average of 24-30. That goes from 4k damage a tick to up to 12k a tick. And it can be pushed even higher than that. I’ve seen bleeds doing close to 20k a tick though thats raid groups and they usually sit around 10k-12k. The point of duration is to apply conditions faster than they are falling off. This is especially important for necromancers who are fairly slow but are fantastic in the long fight.
Q: “Why would you willingly hurt yourself with Master of Corruption?”
A: There is a price for power and you need to be willing to pay that price. Fear doesn’t get triggered often enough to justify running Terror. The bonus DPS from the reduced recharge on your corruptions is worth it. 33% is a huge decrease in recharge. The extra might and torment from BiP makes it worth while in Fractals and the CpC gives excellent coverage against projectiles which could otherwise threaten your squishy back line group. The weakness against the foes as well further reduces damage and it can be spiraled through for extra poison.
Epidemic is the key reason anyone takes MoC. Having that with a shorter cool down means more DPS for your party. Necromancers in both raids and Fractals will bounce conditions off each other to get further DPS boosts than they ever could on their own.
The concept of taking Master of corruption follows the same logic as Using something like Dark Confidant in Magic the gathering, or Belly Drum in Pokemon. You sacrifice a bit of your own health to increase your strength over all. Of course its Risky, but the pay off is usually worth it. Its kinda hard to explain. I mean, Why run Berserkers If you’re more frail than if you run Soldiers? The concept is the same. You want that bonus effectiveness. If you play it wrong, both situations will kill you for taking the riskier road, but if done effectively you’ll be better as a player and far more efficient at what you do.
Condition builds are all about incremental advantage. And the way their builds run shows this. Each point of the build is designed to push the DPS just that little bit further, just that bit more efficiency. Its an extremely nuanced and deep type of build that requires deep thought when executing. I wouldn’t call it relaxed at all, considering you could end up killing yourself. I have done it myself, even though I’ve been playing it for years, even before it was good. The build has a pretty solid rotation and interruptions at key points can cause serious problems. However, you do have outs which is important. Talking about MTG in comparison, I’ve also killed myself using a similar strategy to the MoC strategy. However, I win far more often than I lose. And the reason for that is because both my experience and of the incremental advantage that I accumulate over a long game.
You are very welcome. You should absolutely give it a try someday. Its a real fun build. I have both Berserkers and Vipers for my necromancer. So I’m well aware of how both of them run. Condi is the superior Build when it comes to DPS in the long game. The longer the fight, the more valuable Condi becomes. While Condi builds its DPS Power stays stable through out the entire fight which means it’ll hit its peak damage far quicker than Condi, but loses 100% or close to it when knocked down or downed while condi can keep ticking at at least 90%-50% efficiency for at least a while.
However, I’m not going to tell you how to play. Do whatever you like. I wont exclude anyone from a group just because they want to run power or something else. Especially since necromancers used to be the worst profession in the game and I was excluded. I know how that feels. Play what you love and enjoy yourself. Thats what I say.
~ Death Is Not The Greatest Loss In Life, The Greatest Loss Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live. ~
~ Death Is Not The Greatest Loss In Life, The Greatest Loss Is What Dies Inside Us While We Live. ~
(edited by Obtena.7952)